Youth soccer blowing up in Crested Butte

New soccer club in the works

Over the past several years youth soccer in Crested Butte has expanded to numbers once thought inconceivable. Currently there are close to 350 boys and girls ages four to 18 playing soccer in some capacity.
“The gas outage baby bubble is surging through the youth soccer program,” says town of Crested Butte recreation supervisor Lauren Alkire. “We’ve seen our participation numbers double since 2007.”
While the “gas outage” has something to do with it, there are a number of other contributing factors. The parks and rec department hosts soccer camps each summer that attract as many as 300 boys and girls. They’ve also expanded their offerings to include fall and spring seasons. Parents have stepped up to coach at the youth level, providing an introduction to the sport and the start of a pipeline. Suffice it to say, it’s blowing up.
Given the inherent athleticism of the kids in the Gunnison Valley, Dusty and Darcie Perkins, with the assistance of Chris “Kep” Koeppe, recognized a potential to bring local soccer to a new level and started the East River Football Club (ERFC). All three coaches experienced soccer as players at the Division I and professional levels, moving on to became professional coaches after their playing careers.
The ERFC started three years ago, offering an opportunity for kids in the under-13 age group from Gunnison to Crested Butte, and sometimes beyond the valley, a chance to train at a higher level.
“We were approached by a number of the families after we coached at parks and rec,” explains Darcie. “At the time, some parents wanted a competitive program for their kids.”
“They offered a select competitive program for a segment of kids which the Crested Butte parks and rec cannot accommodate,” adds Alkire. “They gave additional opportunities to kids who wanted it, which is great.”
When the ERFC started, they traveled to tournaments and arranged “friendlies” playing up in the U-14 age group.
“That first season our goal was to bat .500,” explains Darcie. “We did that.”
Darcie points out that the result of the contests is not the ultimate goal. The coaches of the ERFC are committed to providing an opportunity for kids to improve their technique and overall style of play, i.e., possession-style soccer.
“We wanted our kids to see a different level of play,” says Darcie.
And as the years progressed, so did the program. Not only have they climbed through the ranks of the tournaments and are seeing some success against some of the higher level club programs, the ERFC opened up doors for local players to experience a higher level of play. In fact, one local player from the ERFC has moved on to play with one of the top clubs in the state in Denver.
This fall, the club has morphed into a regional select program taking the reins, and the name, of Colorado West Select that was based out of Grand Junction. After their most recent spate of tryouts, the club has 30 players from the Gunnison Valley and another 25 from the region playing in their program. They currently have three teams, two U-14 boys teams and one U-14 girls team, and hope to continue to grow as the regional hub and conduit for select youth soccer.
“Just playing with players from Crested Butte and Gunnison can only get you so far,” explains Darcie. “We’re creating opportunities for kids to bounce out of here. Our real objective for players going beyond is to help them find regional resources and state resources. We try to create opportunities for kids beyond us.”
Still, there was a sense that something needed to be offered between what Colorado West Select brings to the valley and Crested Butte parks and rec programming. Enter the West Elk Soccer Club (WESC). The WESC will be more along the lines of a traditional soccer club, complete with a board of directors and a developmental director, and with coaching oversight and development.
“We had been tossing around the idea for a couple of years now,” says WESC club president Ross Matlock. “Timing was the question and when it came out that the parks and rec was struggling with funding we thought maybe we can assist here and take a load off the rec department.”
The WESC will maintain the same idea as parks and rec in that no players will be turned away, but the programming will be a bit more malleable.
“We will have some flexibility to offer something specific to certain age groups and certain abilities,” says Matlock. “Getting the right skills developed at the right age group and raise the level a notch.”
As mentioned before, the parks and rec program has survived thanks in part to volunteer parent involvement. The WESC hopes to bring more structure and accountability to what it offers.
“We’d like to move away from the parent coaching and more into paid coaching,” explains Matlock, “to create consistency in coaching and consistency in the programs that we run.”
In addition, while there are leagues available in the spring and fall, the WESC hopes to add more tournaments to augment the season for teams and expose their players to the bigger world of soccer around the state.
“Park and recreation is in full support of the WESC,” says Alkire. “I see parks and rec as a program incubator. Once they become sustainable on their own, then we no longer offer it, as long as all kids still have access.”
The WESC looks to be up and running this spring with fundraising ideas in place and offering programs for both boys and girls in the U-14 and U-12 age groups for kids from Crested Butte and Gunnison. Once they get a year under their belt, they hope to expand.
“As we move forward, we want to include other age groups,” says Matlock. “We’d like to move in both directions and offer teams at the U-10 level as well as, possibly, the U-16 level and maybe even take on the adult programming.”
Alkire adds that the transformation of the hockey program into a club and a possible similar move by soccer will open the parks and rec department up to offer more programs.
“Back in January we put a moratorium on new programs because parks and rec was so overwhelmed,” says Alkire. “By having hockey, and possibly soccer, move on—that allows parks and rec to consider new recreational programming in the future.”